In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing same-sex marriage, Republican Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton issued a statement and a nonbinding legal opinion, saying that if county clerks or other officials chose not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or perform weddings, then the state would help them fight whatever lawsuit they may face.

In a column published online by the Religion News Service, Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin addressed the murder of nine people on June 17, 2015 at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, S.C.
Salkin considers two narratives that have been...

Protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation will now be part of the Defense Department’s equal-opportunity policy, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced Tuesday, June 9.
The Pentagon updated the department’s military equal-...

Speaking at the Skeptics Society Conference at Caltech late last month, author and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins addressed the recent Pew study, which showed that the number of people who identified with no particular faith had grown 22.8% between...

With the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage anticipated Friday, two of the plaintiffs in the landmark case that struck down California’s voter-approved same-sex marriage ban Proposition 8 in 2013 were waiting with the TV on, laptops...

This month, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a 17-year-old Muslim girl who was rejected a job at an Abercrombie & Fitch store because she wore a head scarf.
In 2008, Samantha Elauf wore a black head scarf to an interview for a sales position at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in Oklahoma, but “she was turned away because managers feared her scarf would clash with the retailer’s image,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Attorneys for the clothing retailer argued that Elauf never informed...

Robert Gates, national president of the Boy Scouts of America, said last month he believes the organization’s ban on participation by openly gay adults “cannot be sustained” and called for a change to the policy.
In an op-ed published by the Deseret News, Drew Clark suggests that a successful lawsuit challenging the policy is a threat to religious freedom, especially if organizations founded on religious principles cannot set and exercise their membership policies as a result.
Clark...

The Burbank school district’s Parent Teacher Assn. is one step closer to influencing change across California with a resolution seeking to incorporate clear health standards into the state’s curriculum to address lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students, in addition to promoting an inclusive school environment for the young LGBTQ community.
The resolution won formal approval at the California State PTA convention in Sacramento earlier this month, and its passage still...

Last month, a 2009 column written by former President Jimmy Carter about his decision to quit his church on the basis of women’s rights resurfaced and went viral.
The column, “Losing my religion over equality,” was published nearly five years ago on the Australian newspaper The Age’s website. It was tweeted by a U.S. pastor and has since been shared more than 910,000 times on Facebook and nearly 1,400 times on Twitter.
In the column, Carter explains his decision to sever ties...

The Obama administration on Wednesday spoke out against the use of "conversion therapy" on minors, the Los Angeles Times reports. The practice involves a mental health professional trying to change a person's sexuality or gender identity.
"The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm," said Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Barack Obama....

In a move that was hailed as a "milestone," Utah Gov. Gary Herbert this month signed into law SB 296, which, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, "gives Utah its first statewide nondiscrimination protections for the gay and transgender community while safeguarding religious liberties for people of faith."
With the signing, Utah becomes the 19th state to provide statewide protections for the LGBT community in housing and employment, according to the national Human Rights Campaign.
Under the bill,...

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Rabbi David Rosen, the international director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee, said the greatest threat to religion in the world is when it is closely tied to politics.
“The most dangerous thing for religion is when it’s married to political power. When it’s an instrument of political power, then it betrays its own message,” Rosen said.
The article cites the rise of the Islamic State and “far-right...